Darryl James is not your average hip hop entrepreneur. He has some unique quirks and a mind of his own. He has no coastal alliance to either NY or LA, because he is from Chicago. James has never been to jail, instead he went to college. And, he doesn’t claim to be in a gang, instead he boasts of being in Dr. Martin Luther King’s fraternity. James has no problem saying "Hip-Hop is dead", commercial rap sucks and telling anybody what is on his mind. He has put in major work as a rap activist, but some have never heard of him in the rap capacity, because today James is known for his controversial columns on politics, religion, relationships and African American leadership. However Darryl James is part of that unique and raw hip hop clique- so raw that when he created Rap Sheet (First and only Black owned nationally distributed rap magazine) – he did not believe in the glossy magazine cover or the air brushing photographs. His idea was to have Rap Sheet look more like what hip hop really was. That meant no $5,000 cover photo sessions just a photographer and going to the rappers house and if you had a booger in your nose the booger stayed in the cover shot. - Bruce Banter

Playahata.com: Darryl James back in 1992 you owned the 2nd largest rap music publication (Rap Sheet) and had the distinction of owning the only Black owned nationally distributed rap publication, (Rap Sheet), and then in you gave it all up, why?

Darryl James: Primarily because I started hating rap music and stupid rappers. Every rapper was claiming to be a gangster and their rhymes got real silly. Also, I wanted to be a writer of more than just rap-related material. I knew that if I stayed with Rap Sheet, it would be hard for people to take my other work seriously.

Playahata.com: Your had a rap magazine called “Rappin” before starting “Rap Sheet.” What ever happened to the magazine Rappin and what did you learn about hip hop readers then?

James: Rappin’ was a magazine I was involved with while I was still in college. When we started it, it had national distribution, but it was partially owned by the distributor. When they were sold to a larger company, that company didn’t want to continue Rappin, so we got dropped. It actually started right around the same time as The Source, so I knew that a rap magazine was a good idea. But I also knew that I wanted to have my own and be the sole owner.

Playahata.com: Lots of people assumed that your then competitors, The Source, Vibe, and Rap Pages were Black owned but what was/is the deal with their ownership?

James: While Russell Simmons and Quincy Jones were in on the launch of Vibe, Simmons pulled out quickly and Jones was never a major part after the first few issues. Neither The Source nor Vibe were ever Black-owned magazines. And Rap Pages was owned by Larry Flynt from Hustler Magazine. When it comes to Black owned rap magazines—Rap Sheet was it.

Playahata.com: You have vision. After all, Rap Sheet was the first rap music publication on the web but the internet has totally changed Hip-Hop journalism. Could Rap Sheet compete today with the XXL, Feds Magazine generation of readers?

James: Well, if Rap Sheet had continued, it would have evolved into whatever made sense for the audience, which, honestly, is the reason I didn’t want to do it anymore. But if I was doing Rap Sheet today, I would be covering the underground to shed light on artists around the nation who are selling locally, but who will never get national support because they actually have real content and real lyrical skills. Other than that, I’d have the same people on the cover all the time—Outkast, Common, Public Enemy and Twista.

Playahata.com: As a pioneer in Hip-Hop journalism, you came into contact with a lot of rappers before this business became a billion dollar industry. What’s the difference between rappers then and now?

James: Well, then, more of the rappers who had money were down to earth. I remember going to Japan with Luther “Luke” Campbell and running into MC Hammer, who was on tour there. He and Luke were cool with each other and I was cool with both. Jermaine Dupree co-hosted one of my Hip Hop Conferences in Atlanta, and when I was making a radio appearance, he met me at the station at 6 in the morning on his own. Public Enemy was hot on the radio, but at a conference I did in DC, Chuck D was outside sitting on the ground, chilling with some teenagers. It wasn’t all about the fame, it was more about the art and the culture.

Playahata.com: You had a running “beef” with Master P over money, what happened and why didn’t you sue him? And who else jerked you?

James: Master P was paying White-owned publications and getting credit from me, the Black man. When his bill got too high and he stopped paying, I cut him off. Eventually, I sued him, but he filed bankruptcy and reorganized. Too Short and Jay-Z also left the Black man with outstanding bills.

Playahata.com: According to Bay area Hip Hop Historian, Davey D “Newsweek created a urban legend that everybody reports as fact. Which is that 80 percent of hip hop music buyers are white. He says its a nice marketing tool used by media corporations to justify ad revenues for Top 40 radio stations". What do you say to is the face of the rap consumer for magazines? Who was buying your magazine and what was your target audience?

James: Well, Davey D is a smart man, and I’m certain that he has found some information that makes the urban legend an urban legend today. But I do know that a huge portion of the buying audience was White, especially in the early and mid-nineties. Young White kids wanted to be rebellious and rap music was their way of getting in their parents’ faces, by using someone else’s culture. The same thing happened in the early days of Rock. While we clearly targeted a Black audience, I knew that Whites were a huge portion of my readership.

In closing, I want people to watch for three hot projects that I’m unleashing over the next two months--a new book called "Notes From The Edge;" an updated version of my book on rioting in America, called "American Riots: Rebellion or Revolution;" (to be released on 4/29/07, the fifteenth anniversary of the LA Riots); and a documentary called "Who's Your Daddy," dealing with the inequities of the child support system.

And, I'm back in the magazine game, but not in rap music. I launched an upscale lifestyle magazine in Beverly Hills, California called The Beverly Hills Report.